Vijay Mallya retains position as USL chairman

Vijay Mallya has retained his position as chairman of United Spirits despite reports that shareholders may vote to oust the billionaire at yesterday’s AGM.

Mallya has been embroiled in controversy after an internal inquiry conducted by parent company Diageo found that funds from United Spirits – the largest drinks producer in India – had been “diverted” to UB Holdings, in which Mallya is a shareholder.

Reported to be for UB’s subsidiaries, including the grounded Kingfisher Airlines, the diverted funds were discovered after USL reported a net profit loss of £445m in 2013/14.

In April this year, USL’s board of directors issued a vote of no confidence in Mallya and called on shareholders to remove the billionaire tycoon as the group’s chairman after he refused to step down voluntarily.

However it was revealed yesterday that Mallya would chair USL’s delayed AGM and that his continuing position at the company was “not on the agenda”.

Reports from India claim that during the AGM, Mallya refused to answer questions from the media that he was planning to voluntarily step down from the company.

“Why should I respond to media reports? It’s a figment of someone’s imagination and the whole media piles on to it and asks multiple questions. I have nothing to say on this,” the Financial Express reports him as saying.

Mallya also said that he was “focused” on settling Kingfisher’s outstanding loans from banks, but refused to confirm whether he would consider selling his remaining stake in Diageo in order to do so.

Mallya has personally been named a “willful defaulter” of loans by numerous banks relating to Kingfisher in the past year.